Pathfinder Advanced Class Guide: How the classes stack up (Part 3)

This is part three of a four-part series. Subsequent installments will be released every Tuesday leading up to the Advanced Class Guide’s release. Other installments: Part 1 | Part 2. Also, check out our interview with Paizo’s Lead Designer Jason Bulmahn.

We did a five-man-free-for-all, player vs. player match sans the Bloodrager because Griffin was unable to attend. It was a strategic match with each player doing their best to highlight their class’s abilities.

Thanks to her animal companion and the Coordinated Charge teamwork feat, Nate’s Hunter got off to a hot start. He soon ran into trouble in the form of Philip’s Swashbuckler, however. Luckily for him, I was able to poison the Swashbuckler utilizing my Investigator’s lasting poison Rogue Talent. Not long after, Tyler’s Brawler joined the fray, leaving Jonathan’s Warpriest time to heal himself in the aftermath of the onslaught from the Hunter and her animal companion.

By the time we realized that giving the Warpriest a chance to recover was a bad idea, it was too late…

These classes are taken from the revised playtest of Pathfinder’s upcoming Advanced Class Guide set to release Aug. 14. Bear in mind that the Skald was reviewed at a later date, separate from the others. In this last look at the new classes we review the heroic Skald, the daring Swashbuckler and the powerful Warpriest.

The cover art for the Advanced Class Guide (Provided by Paizo)

Skald

Hit Dice: d8

Base Attack Progression: ¾

Spells: 6 levels of Bard

Good Saves: Fortitude and Will

An allusion to the Norse poets who would tell tales of their champions’ greatest deeds in battle, the Skald is a flavorful mix of the supportive Bard and the brutal Barbarian. The class is mostly based off the Bard with a few Barbarian features along the way.

The biggest change is that Skald loses the Bard’s Inspire Courage ability in favor of producing a raging song effect that sends allies into rage. The Skald grants willing participants a +2 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution and a +1 bonus on Will Saves. Notably, the penalty to AC is only -1.

One of the best facets of this ability is that it allows characters to flexibly enter and leave rage with no penalties. Each round the Skald continues her raging song, other characters can choose (as a free action) to remain in rage or drop out of rage without incurring fatigue penalties. This allows warriors the option to do something more tactical should the situation require it. The Skald can also grant her allies rage powers during the raging song. This allows for some potentially potent abilities, including an entire party of ragers tripping opponents or using foes as clubs to bludgeon other enemies with.

The Skald also gets the Bard’s full casting progression and has an ability that allows her to cast any Bard, Cleric, Sorcerer or Wizard Spell as a full round action.

One big drawback of the class is that its effectiveness is dependent on the type of characters that surround it. The Skald is perfect for a melee-heavy party but in a party filled with mages and ranged fighters, the class’s value decreases by leaps and bounds. However, given the flexible nature of the Skald’s raging song, some non-melee classes may accept the rage bonuses in a pinch.

Another large setback is that the Raging Song ability increases at a very sluggish rate. While the Bard’s Inspire Courage increases to a +4 bonus over 20 levels with plenty of other performances to supplement the power of Inspire Courage, the Skald gets two bardic performances including Raging Song and the bonus to Strength and Constitution only reaches +6 after 20 levels which comes out to a +3 bonus to stats modified by either Strength or Constitution. However, the ability does grant a +6 to will saves at level 20.

Thankfully, Paizo has since announced new songs for the Skald to use, including one that allows him to revive his allies should they fall in battle. Conceptually, the Skald is perhaps the most interesting hybrid the Advanced Class Guide offers, but it needs to be needed in order to reach its full potential

Swashbuckler

Hit Dice: d10

Base attack progression: Full

Spells: none

Good Saves: Reflex

As its name implies, Swashbucklers are the class of choice for those wishing to recreate the dashing, death-defying acrobatic actions of characters like Jack Sparrow or Zorro. While Pathfinder’s previous attempts at this concept — i.e. the Duelist — have been severely hindered by a caveat that limits the character to wielding a one-handed piercing weapon alone, the Swashbuckler gives players more than enough goodies to compensate.

Some might argue too many goodies.

The Swashbuckler trumps most of its peers. The class grants bonuses to saving throws, attack rolls, damage rolls and armor class as well as bonus feats at regular intervals.

Like the Gunslinger, the Swashbuckler has his own set of deeds he can accomplish by spending points of Panache, the Swashbuckler’s version of Grit. The abilities are amazing. For one, the Swashbuckler gains the ability to parry and riposte an attack at first level. A character that took the Duelist route would have to wait until level 11 to do the same trick.

At level three, the Swashbuckler can add its class level to damage rolls. By spending a point of Panache, the Swashbuckler can deal double its class level in damage. Again, the Swashbuckler beats the Duelist in this regard by three levels.

Panache also grants the Swashbuckler a wealth of useful abilities. This class doesn’t need much to make it powerful — a standard fare Swashbuckler can easily best some of the most optimized characters this book has to offer. The class may be listed as a cross between the Fighter and the Gunslinger, but apart from a few similar abilities the Swashbuckler is really just the Duelist done right.

The Warpriest is angry…you won’t like him when he’s angry (Provided by Paizo)

Warpriest

Hit Dice: d8

Base attack progression: ¾

Spells: 6 levels of Cleric list beginning at 1

Good Saves: Fortitude, Will

“If you’re not using Warpriest and you are playing any tank or damage dealer, you are in fact doing it wrong,” my friend Jonathan Sulzbach said.

After taking around 300 points of damage in our 12th-level PvP match, Jon was still able to claim victory thanks to the Warpriest’s potent abilities.

The Warpriest is to divine gishes — gish = warrior mage — what Magus is to arcane fighters. With potent combat abilities, a myriad of great offensive and defensive spells and most importantly, the action economy to use both magic and melee in rapid succession, the Warpriest is a one-man army. A simple combination between the feat-heavy Fighter and the magically superior Cleric, the Warpriest rivals the iconic Paladin in many aspects.

He chooses one or more sacred weapons which increase in base damage as he reaches higher levels. Also, like a Paladin, the Warpriest can imbue his weapons with enchantment bonuses, and do the same with his armor. The Warpriest receives six of the Fighter’s 11 bonus feats.

Finally, there’s the Fervor ability which allows the Warpriest to heal himself or cast a spell on himself as a swift action. This allows the Warpriest to not only survive but obliterate his opponents in the process.

The class’s 3/4 BAB (which Paizo limited after the playtest, the version we played allowed the Warpriest to gain full BAB using certain weapons) hurts a bit, delaying extra attacks, feats and decreasing the class’s to hit chance etc. However, the Warpriest has plenty of abilities that increase his attack bonus.

While you may not exactly be “doing it wrong” if you roll up a holy warrior that isn’t a Warpriest, this class is definitely not to be overlooked.

Check back with us next week as we interview Paizo’s lead designer Jason Bulmahn. How did Paizo come up with the idea of hybrid classes? Why are there no hybrids based off some of the other core and base classes like Paladin, Cavalier or Inquisitor? Answers to these questions and more next Tuesday, July 29.

A few notes. First, a correction on the Warpriest that is not immediately apparent unless you delve into the Preview thread, Jason Buhlman has confirmed that the release version of the Warpriest “Contains no mention of the word Charisma”. So, presumably, Fervor is now based of Wis as it should be (unless he’s screwing with everyone and based it off Int, of course. =p).

As for the Swashbuckler, I’d have to respectfully diasgree on your estimation of its abilities. While it is a nice replacement for the Duelist, it has a few crippling flaws that really hold it back from the rest of the front-lining characters. Its damage is competitive (the double level to damage really only evens out the disadvantages of a Dex based playstyle and using one handed weapons exclusively), but defensively it lacks, especially in the saves department. Having poor Fortitude AND Will means it is a very sad class at higher levels, when every monster and their grandmother (sometimes literally, such as in the case of dragons…) has an attack that can screw you over on a failed Fort or Will save, often resulting in instant death, and more often resulting in you being out of the fight for the duration (notable conditions include but are not limited to: Frightened/Panicked, Paralysis, and Ability damage and negative levels from creatures such as Wraiths or Vampires).

While it gets Charmed Life to compensate, it only gets it a limited number of times per day, and merely adds a tertiary skill (secondary at best) to the result of the roll. Compare a Paladin, who is far more Cha focused and receives its Cha bonus to all saves all day every day.

To add insult to injury, its light armor restriction means you’re somewhat reliant on being able to Parry with a regular basis to avoid taking hits, and Charmed Life and Parry are incompatible; You can only use one or the other in a given round, and as both are reactive abilities it’s difficult to make a sound judgement call as to which is more worthwhile.

It’s not a terrible class by any means, but I would emphatically say it does not get “too many goodies”. It gets plenty of shiny toys, but very few of them are worthwhile, and the ones that ARE usually exist to shore up a weakness in the core chassis of the class.

Looking forward to your interview with Jason Buhlman tomorrow.

Hugh Johnson

Thanks for the heads up on the Warpriest. Looks like it’s still at the top of the totem pole. As for Swashbuckler, we may have to agree to disagree. You’re correct about the two poor saves. I really don’t understand the logic behind that move, but I believe there’s more than enough uses of Charmed Life to last a player. It gets seven uses over 20 levels, five at level 10. As for defense, the swashbuckler can still Parry and used Charmed Life since Parry works off of A-OPs. Sadly, he cannot riposte but that’s still much better than the Duelist class. Also, against the right creature (i.e. one without reach) the dodging panache deed can effectively negate full attacks. The one caveat here is that the Swashbuckler would be burning through Panache points but a high-crit build should negate the problem. It’s not the sturdiest defense around, I’ll give you that but partially, I think that’s by design. The Swashbuckler feels like a daredevil and I think it’s a good fit.